Off to School
by Rude's Mom
Summary: It's that time of year again. The Potters, the Weasleys, and others are sending their children off to Hogwarts. This year, so is Buffy.
1. Off to School

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling does) nor Buffy (Mr. Whedon and Mutant Enemy do). This is probably a good thing.

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a Harry Potter/Buffy cross.

* * *

**September 1, 2017**

Platform 9 3/4s was packed to the brim with students heading to off to start the school year. Cages with owls teetered on trunks while parents gave their children final hugs before boarding. More than a few could be caught staring at some of the wizarding world's most famous heroes. The Potter and the Weasley families were both there to see their children off. Also of note, but only to die-hard blood purists, were the Malfoys. Soon however, the goodbyes were done and the last student boarded the train.

Buffy stood misty eyed as the Hogwarts Express pulled away from the station.

"She'll be home for Christmas," a deep voice murmured into her left ear as arms encircled her waist.

Buffy leaned back. "I know. It's just that's she's so young to be going off to boarding school."

"A _magical_ boarding school," her husband of almost fifteen years reminded her. "It is our way. You of all people should understand that she needs a proper foundation in the magical arts."

"I know. It's just hard letting go."

"Of course, if she follows in your illustrious footsteps she will be home by the end of the week," he smirked.

"Ah hm, and why would that be?

"Well, she could burn the gym down or perhaps blow the whole place up," he said. "You were expelled twice if I recall. I almost pity the faculty. Perhaps we should send an owl and warn them?"

"Cute. I didn't start school demolition until I was fifteen. She's only eleven," Buffy pouted and turned around in his arms.

"But precocious," he said before releasing her. "And already the quite troublemaker."

"She's going to end up in Slytherin isn't she?"

"Gryffindor," he said sourly. "There has never been a more troublesome house."

"You still hold a grudge after all these years."

"Only a small one. I'm sure I'll get over it in another decade or two."

"Come on. I'll buy you a butterbeer before we pick up Toby from Dawn," Buffy laughed as she and her husband left the station.

Several yards away the Potters and Weasleys prepared to leave as well.

"Harry, Ginny, Lily, and I are going to do a bit of shopping before we head home. Can we meet you and Ron at the entrance in about an hour?"

Harry didn't answer. He couldn't. He hadn't, in fact, heard a word that Hermione had said.

"Ron, did you just see what I saw," he said quietly.

"I couldn't have. It's just not possible. He's dead, right. I mean we all saw the body."

"Ron, what couldn't have you seen," Ginny asked her brother.

"Snape."


	2. The Train Ride

**Chapter 2 – The Train Ride**

The dark haired daughter of a one-time potions professor and former headmaster of Hogwarts pushed her way down the aisle looking for a compartment that appeared agreeable in its occupants and still had available space. Unfortunately for the young lady, the baby boom that had followed the end of the Second Wizarding War meant that the Hogwarts Express was filled to, and quite frankly beyond, capacity. Nearly an hour after the train had pulled out of the station she had yet to find a seat. Giving up in disgust, she stood in the aisle watching the countryside fly by.

She was still annoyed that her parents had packed her off to boarding school, in Scotland no less. Why her parents had decided to move back to Merry Olde three years earlier defied logic. The food had been much better in France and she could have been a student at Beauxbatons. Even the name of the French magic school was nicer. What kind of idiot named a school Hogwarts? The fashions were also much better at Beauxbatons, pretty uniforms made of blue silk rather than dreary robes. The uniform that she wore underneath her student robes was not an improvement over the outer layer. It wasn't fair. Just because her father had been sent of to boarding school as a kid didn't mean that she had to go. Her mother and aunt hadn't.

"Lovely, just bloody lovely," she muttered as she was shoved up against the window by a group of older students making their way through the carriage.

"Careful," a voice said behind her. "Language like that will lose house points."

She turned to see a cute green-eyed boy that seemed to be about her age.

"Can't take house points off yet," she smirked. "Haven't been sorted."

"Me neither. My name's Albus."

"Minerva. You couldn't find a seat either?"

"Had one but my brother was in the same compartment," he sighed. "He was being a bit of a berk again so I left."

"Oh?"

"He keeps telling me that I'm going to be sorted into Slytherin."

"I take it that's a bad thing?"

"It is in my family. Both of my parents were Gryffs and their parents were as well. Plus, all of my uncles and most of my aunts were sorted into Gryffindor." Albus turned to look out the window.

"Which house do you think that you will be sorted into," he asked a few minutes later.

"Definitely not Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. I'm not a bookworm and blind loyalty isn't what is cracked up to be."

"So Gryffindor or Slytherin?"

"Slytherin, I think because according to Mom I take after Dad. He says I'm my mother's daughter and I'll land in Gryffindor."

The boy's eyes rounded in shock. "A Gryff married a snake?"

Minerva snorted. "No, Dad was sorted into Slytherin but Mom's American so she never went to Hogwarts. Dad's pretty sure that she would have ended in in Gryffindor if she had gone to there though. Mom just laughs and says he should be grateful she didn't wind up in Hogwarts."

"Did she go to Salem?"

"No. My grandparents were Muggles and she didn't find out she was different until she was about fifteen or so."

"She didn't go a magical school once she found out?"

"No, her parents wouldn't believe that she was magical. I think that they locked her up until she said that she had lied about everything," she shrugged. "Not that I was ever officially told mind you because she really doesn't talk much about when she was a kid. I've heard bits and pieces though, especially when my aunt visits."

"That's as bad as what happened to my dad."

"Oh?"

"He was raised by Muggles after my grandparents died. They called him a freak and made him sleep in a closet under the stairs. They got really mad if anything magical happened but at least they let him go to Hogwarts."

"Mom's family either ignored magic or came up with other reasons to explain stuff. Mom says that Muggles are really good at not believing anything that can't be explained by science."

"Maybe American Muggles ignore magic are but the Ministry here is very careful to hide the our world."

"Oh. So, what happens if you get sorted into Slytherin?"

"My dad said that sometimes you can convince the hat to sort you where you want to go so I'd guess I will try to talk it into putting me into Gryffindor."

"I didn't know you could do that. But if you didn't want to sit near your brother on the train, do you really want to spend the next few years in the same house?"

"You have a point," he grinned. "I'll be sorted into Gryffindor anyway. James is just being James."

"You mean a berk."

"Hey, Albus," a voice called out from the far end of the carriage. "Victorie is threatening to hex me if you don't come back."

"And the berk calleth," Albus said softly.

Minerva giggled.

"I'm busy," Albus replied in a much louder voice before adding quietly, "unless you want to join me, Minerva. There's enough room. Of course, everybody there is a Gryff."

"Are you challenging me?"

"Maybe. My dad said the bravest man he ever knew was a Slytherin."

"Sound like your dad is pretty cool. For a Gryff that is," she amended.

"So?"

"I'll enter the lions' den. I've always wondered what a berk looks like. Is it anything like a jerk?"


	3. And the Dead Shall Walk Again

**Chapter 3 – And the dead shall walk again**

Previously on Platform 9 3/4

_"Ron, what couldn't have you seen," Ginny asked her brother._

_"Snape." _

"What's a snape," Harry's daughter Lily asked.

"The great bat of the dungeon," Hugo explained to his cousin. "He was the meanest teacher at Hogwarts but he's dead, right Da?"

"What have you been telling our son, Ron?" Hermoine was more than a little exasperated with her husband. While it was true that Snape had been not the nicest man, he had ultimately given his life for the cause (or at least Lily's memory) and deserved at least a little respect. "_Professor_ Snape died at the end of the war Hugo. I don't know who your father and Uncle Harry saw but it couldn't have been him."

Ron disagreed. "I'd recognize that greasy git anywhere, anytime. It was him."

"RON!"

"Not now 'Mione," Ginny interjected. It was an old argument between the couple that she really didn't need to hear again. "Are you two sure that you saw him?"

"I think so, unless Snape had a twin brother we don't know about," Harry said with a touch of worry in his voice. "He was with a woman who looked to be about our age."

Hermione latched on to Harry's comment and her mind went into overdrive. "That could explain it. Maybe Professor Snape had a squib for a brother. Keeping him hidden would have been the only way to keep him alive back then."

"And the squib had a magical child," Ron scoffed. "You're reaching a bit."

"It's less of a reach than Snape coming back from the dead," his wife shot back.

"Really? It's not like someone well versed in the Dark Arts hasn't done it before," the red-headed wizard pushed.

"Hold on you two," Harry said. "Ginny, I want you take the kids and Hermione for a surprise visit to the Burrow. Ron and I will tail our mystery man. Hopefully he hasn't gone to far."

Hermione shook her head. "Ginny, you take the children, maybe I can find something at the Ministry. Hugo, mind your manners while visiting your grandmother. No pranks this time."

"Ron, let's go," Harry said as they hurried towards the entrance to the muggle portion of Kings Cross.

As soon as the men were out of sight, Ginny heaved a sigh. "You're not going to the Ministry are you?"

"Of course not, Ginny."

"Mom," Hugo was shocked.

"I never said I was actually going to the Ministry Hugo," she explained. "I'm going to try to keep your dad and uncle from doing something they may regret."

"Why do I get the idea that you would have done well in Slytherin?"

Her sister-in-law grinned. "Maybe we're lucky I'm Muggleborn."

"Go on then, they should have enough of a head start by now."

Buffy and her husband had known there was a chance that in coming to the station themselves Severus would be outed. Earlier in the week it had been Dawn who had taken Minerva to Diagon Alley for her school supplies. Today they had taken the chance that the crowd would be large enough, and distracted enough, that they could pass unnoticed, just one more set of parents seeing a child off. As a bonus, unlike in Diagon Alley, virtually everyone not boarding the train was wearing Muggle-style clothing. There probably wasn't a person alive outside of his immediate family that ever seen Severus dressed as anything other than a wizard. So with Severus dressed in a casual, yet stylish dark gray jacket and tie, they had decided they would take the risk.

A few minutes after leaving the station, Buffy realized that they were being followed.

"Sev, someone is following us," she said as she leaned into her husband, gripping his hand a bit tighter

"I know. We've been followed since we left King's Cross."

"And you didn't think to mention it," she queried.

"I was waiting for you to notice," he smirked as she looked up.

"Are we going to skip the butterbeer?"

"No. I believe I know who is tracking us," Severus said.. "We might as well make it fairly easy for them so we will head to Allston's. I wouldn't want to overtax them. Yet."

"You have something in mind?"

He was silent for a moment as he considered his options. "Follow my lead. If I am correct about the identity of our shadows we will be safe enough. You may even get a chance for hero-baiting."

"Oh?"

"I think it is time for Professor Snape to make a brief appearance."

Buffy was surprised at how quiet Allson's was. It was her favorite tavern since she discovered the yummy goodness that was butterbeer. It catered to the wizarding community but its décor was much nicer than the Leaky Cauldron. She made a point of stopping in whenever she visited London. Normally, the Friday lunch crowd would be arriving by now.

"Most wizards and witches take September first off from work, even the ones that weren't at the station seeing off their children." Severus responded to her quizzical look. "A simple privacy charm will suffice once they arrive."

She was about to ask for the identity of the mysterious they when the server came by to take their order.

"One butterbeer and a pumpkin juice to start with," Severus ordered from the girl as they were handed menus.

"That pumpkin juice had better be for you," his wife growled as she looked over the menu. Hmm, maybe a double order of bangers and mash.

"Hardly. You know that pumpkin juice is better for you in your condition."

Her jaw dropped. "You know?"

"Of course," he said. "And here they come."

The two aurors realized that they had been spotted the moment the entered Allson's. Since there was no longer any reason to hold back, they headed straight for the couple sitting towards the back of the common room. There was not doubt in either of their minds that Professor Snape was back from the dead.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley," Severus greeted them. "Is there a problem? You look as though you've both seen a ghost."


End file.
